LWhat’s the best way to plan for an iTelecope Target? You don’t always know what times are available. Is there a way to create a total plan for a target SNR that might span several nights, rather than individual night plans? Then enter night plans manually once you know the time availability.

The short answer is that you need to look at one night at a time. The iTelescope usage is sort of a special case, since you can't assume that time is always available.

The first thing to do is to determine what dates the target is best observed on. Use the Object Information dialog for this. The Object Info is opened via a right click on the target object in the target list, or the imaging project. You can also look the target up via the Designation Search tool and open the Object Info from there. Use the YearBar tool. You may also find the NightBar tool to be useful, by flipping ahead one night at a time. Once you have an idea which nights it will be available, move on to the next step.

Be sure that you have created an imaging project. Open the Scheduler and select your imaging system and the first night it is available. Select your project. The NightBar graphic will display the best time of the night to observe it. Pay particular attention to the colored bars at the bottom of the graphic. Look for green in particular.

Open the schedule for your iTelescope online. Check to see if there is time open during the prime time to observe. If not, move on to another night. When you find a good open time period, schedule it to cover the best time of the night for your object. By the way, I find that planning many days, or even weeks, ahead means that there is often little else scheduled.

Once you have made your reservation open that night in the Scheduler. Set the start and end times to the start and end times of your reservation. Schedule your observation. Generate an ACP plan. Upload the plan to iTelescope and then attach it to your reservation.